The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-11-19
A SAILORS YARN.

A SAILORS YARN.
R 1850 L was one of the crew of the
crican bark Henry Castle, which
Zee voyage to the java Sea and
ca{'ed at several of the larger islands.
iOHe day while the ship was lying in
thH outer harbor Of Samarang. Island
qi |aya, two of us pulled the captain
asHore in the gig. We landed him
ora rocky point, from whence he
TOOK short cut across to the town,
ana we were or tered to wait there
mil his return. My shipmate,
Fnose name was Thurber, stretched
pu< for nap as soon as the captain
pad gone, while l got out on the
soint TO have look around, The
Fafer was pretty deep alongside the
loat. and by and by. full of Sailors
kevlilry, / picked up large rock and
"a sdaissato The water with a great
splash, ] calculated on seeing Thur
Der start up in alarm, but he only
laughed at my effort. Then | set out
to wet him with with a splash, and
flung fiyeor six other rocks as large
as | couidhandIe. was hunting for
yet anothel and had my back to the
boat and tile water, when something
brushed paAmy head. | made leap
aside and Wheeled around. In the
two seconds nus occupied | decided
that Thurber lad thrown some mis-
sic at me aud laughed as l turned
about.
The laugh, however, died away in
shout of terror. An oetopns with
a body as large asa beer keg had ris-
en- to the surface and partly drawn
itself on the rocks and its half dozen
terrible arms were 1ying about like
so many whip lashts. 1t had flung
one of them at me ami missed its aim.
Although | was nOwthirty feet away
it continued to fling three or four
leelers in my direction, but none of
them could reach within fifteen feet.
The two longest arms were from fif-
teen to eighteen feet long, and the
shorter ones from eight to ten.
If | could have resisted myself for
a few moments the monster would no
doubt have sunk beneath the waters
again, but the awful stare of its great
eyes, the light of its terrible beak
the squ!rming of those horrible feel
ers as they tried in vain to touch me,
made me cry out loudly. l might
have known that L could make no
headway against the monster with
tne means at nand. but, acting on the
impulse of the moment, | picked up
a good sized stone and flung it with
certain aim at the puIpish body. 1t
was at this moment that Thurber rose
up in the boat to see what was going
on. The creature didn't see him a.
first, being entirely occupied in try.
ing to get me into its clutches. | be-
lieve Thurber could have pushed the
boat off and hOated away in safety,
but he also acted on the first impulse.
Lifting up one Of the heavy oars he
dealt the octupus heavy blow, no
doubt utiicting severe injury. He
was raising the car for second blow
when | saw three or four leelerS whip
through the air at once and fasten to
him. while the creature emitted
Kissing sound like the blowing off Of
steam. The man uttered ! scream of
terror as the feelers caught him,
and sank down in the boat with a
Gluten Of despair.
Mind you, everything had taken
place in Il moan mt and | wasn't to
be blamed for not knowing exactly
what to do. However, l accomplish
ed all that could have been done un-
der the circumstances. l hurled rock
after rock at the creature, striking it
fairly several times, but it refused to
let 90 of Thurber. 1t kept two Of the
feelers ready for me, ana once, in my
excitement and anxiety approached
too near, one of the feelers came so
close tO catching me that it struck
my foot. The screams of my poor
shipmate were terrible to hear. and
they alarmed the crews of several
vessels half mile away, Two boats
put off for us, but they had not pass
ed over half the distance when the
octopus put forth his strength and
jerked Thurher from his hold and
overheard, The water at that point
was twenty feet deep, and it was ap-
parent that there was a sort Of cave
or recess in the rocks, which was the
home of the creature. We rolled
more rocks down. got long pole and
thrust it down. and after an hours
work got hold of The sailors body
and brought it to land. There was a
terrible cash in his back, made, no
doubt, by the beak of the octopus,
and Uharoyor ba aupS nf fbn fnplar9